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Is a MacBook Pro suitable for me?

C

codenamecueball

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 28, 2009
105
0
I'm looking at purchasing a 15" cMBP with student discount in the UK with the following spec

Apple Online Store said:
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB GDDR5 memory
4GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard (British) & User's Guide (English)
Click to expand...

for £1,357 inc. 3 year HE warranty.

I'm starting a film degree and I will be using Avid MC mainly along with Final Cut Pro 7 and the Adobe Creative Suite.

I'm planning upgrade the ram to 16GB and the HD to a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro and put the current HDD in the optical bay.

I'd prefer the matte screen over the retina as I find even the reduced glare of the retina too much shine.

Is this laptop going to best fit my needs or should I look elsewhere? I'm going to be purchasing it around the start of August.

Thanks!
 
You may also wish to upgrade the HDD in the optibay to the 1TB if you will be editing a lot of video; the additional low cost storage you get may be enough to prevent you from having to lug around an external.

>
 
Sorry OP, my post was cut off. What I mean is that since you need more RAM and SSD anyway, it's best if you can buy the cheapest one that you can get. So if you ask me, I think it's good to go with that model. And yes, stuff it with the biggest SSD and HDD that you can afford. You will need them for your future projects. Btw is that the price in UK refurb store with student discount? Damn ..didn't know they still so expensive.
 
Thank you both, I'll take it into consideration. With the price of hard drive storage dropping as it is, it'll be economical for me to get a 1TB 7200rpm internal within a year or two, when the 500GB is full.

I'm also wondering about the lifetime of the machine. Will it last me 4 years of my course okay, and would a Acme Skinny Sleeve be a good investment for carrying it around?
 
Depends on how you use your machine. In a 4 years life span, it should be fine. But small things like magsafe adapter, ports,. could break or get lose.

And yes, any sleeve is a good investment for your macbook.
 
codenamecueball said:
I'm also wondering about the lifetime of the machine. Will it last me 4 years of my course okay, and would a Acme Skinny Sleeve be a good investment for carrying it around?
Click to expand...

If you get a decent sleeve and bag you should be fine for 4+ years, especially if your important stuff is on the SSD rather than the optibay drive. My 2009 MBP is on its third HDD and probably fourth or fifth hd cable, but that's been my only issue in four years of hauling it around a college campus.

Sounds like a good buy!
 
Hi,

I'm getting almost the same config. However, I would strongly recommend paying a little extra for the 2.6GHz CPU to get a bit more horsepower, but mainly in order to get the 1GB VRAM on your GPU which will allow it to use CUDA acceleration in Adobe apps.

Premiere is a really nice editing app at the moment so you might want to give it a go, especially when Avid tends to get on some people's (mine, for instance) nerves and FCP might not suit all your needs at once (7 needing renders for everything and X being so optimimized for music videos and ads). Also, the whole CS integration is a bonus... ;)

The rest of your configuration is, in my opinion, the most reasonable choice - stick with it. Add the RAM & SSD but also consider upgrading the HDD to 7200rpm for your video.

Enjoy it. :)
 
let's thinking from other perspective

1. are you using macbook for heavy activity? like rendering movie, editing movie, rendering design or etc? if not, why you worry about processor speed?
2. are you need mobile activity???

if your answer is "YES" and "YES", please choice retina 13/15
if your answer is "YES" and "NO", please choice cMBP 13/15
if your answer is "NO" and "YES", please choice air 13
if your answer is "NO" and "NO", feel free :D

but, from your need's...
i suggest to 16GB RAM and using SSD
15 is good choice but heavy than retina 15.
 
gibkibonzo said:
He stated he's going to use it for Avid, FCP & Adobe CS - so "yeah".



Retina is still quite heavy in my opinion. It's not Air.
Click to expand...

ofcourse, if you compare with air.
but from performance, retina better than air, even air using haswell :D
 
lagisibuk said:
ofcourse, if you compare with air.
but from performance, retina better than air, even air using haswell :D
Click to expand...

The Air is obviously nowhere near the performance of a 15inch Pro, but what I was saying is that rMBP is nowhere near the mobility of the Air. In other words - carrying a 15inch, whether retina or not, will always prove quite heavy. I don't really buy the argument that rMBPs are that much more portable than cMBPs. A little - yes. But they certainly aren't lightweight ultrabooks, thus mobility is not the deciding factor in choosing between 'classic' and retina Pro.

1. It's the screen - does one prefer more colors & pixels over matte screen & more screen real estate (without pushing the CPU & GPU to create more on rMBP) - none is clearly better than the other, just a matter of preference.
2. Connectivity - does one need some 'legacy' ports like ethernet & firewire over hdmi & 2nd thunderbolt? Also, a matter of choice.
3. Expandability - does one want to pay for all goodies at once, or prefer to upgrade over time (also having a dual drive option and a lot easier access to one's battery).
 
gibkibonzo said:
The Air is obviously nowhere near the performance of a 15inch Pro, but what I was saying is that rMBP is nowhere near the mobility of the Air. In other words - carrying a 15inch, whether retina or not, will always prove quite heavy. I don't really buy the argument that rMBPs are that much more portable than cMBPs. A little - yes. But they certainly aren't lightweight ultrabooks, thus mobility is not the deciding factor in choosing between 'classic' and retina Pro.

1. It's the screen - does one prefer more colors & pixels over matte screen & more screen real estate (without pushing the CPU & GPU to create more on rMBP) - none is clearly better than the other, just a matter of preference.
2. Connectivity - does one need some 'legacy' ports like ethernet & firewire over hdmi & 2nd thunderbolt? Also, a matter of choice.
3. Expandability - does one want to pay for all goodies at once, or prefer to upgrade over time (also having a dual drive option and a lot easier access to one's battery).
Click to expand...

These three reasons are literally why I'm going classic over retina.

The cMBP will be in a sleeve in a backpack, or on my desk.
It weighs less than a Lenovo 3000 N200 which I carried around 2 or 3 years ago with a load of folders and books, and just half a kilo more than the 13" HP ProBook I carted about recently.

----------
gibkibonzo said:
Hi,

I'm getting almost the same config. However, I would strongly recommend paying a little extra for the 2.6GHz CPU to get a bit more horsepower, but mainly in order to get the 1GB VRAM on your GPU which will allow it to use CUDA acceleration in Adobe apps.

Premiere is a really nice editing app at the moment so you might want to give it a go, especially when Avid tends to get on some people's (mine, for instance) nerves and FCP might not suit all your needs at once (7 needing renders for everything and X being so optimimized for music videos and ads). Also, the whole CS integration is a bonus... ;)
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention as part of CS I'll be using PP and AE, so yeah, CUDA would be good but the cost, about £130+ to add it is just unreasonable to me right now, I can't justify it.
 
codenamecueball said:
I forgot to mention as part of CS I'll be using PP and AE, so yeah, CUDA would be good but the cost, about £130+ to add it is just unreasonable to me right now, I can't justify it.
Click to expand...

Depending on how intensive you plan on making your AE projects you'll want as much power as you can get. Think about where you'll be in 2-3 years and what you'll need then.
 
codenamecueball said:
I forgot to mention as part of CS I'll be using PP and AE, so yeah, CUDA would be good but the cost, about £130+ to add it is just unreasonable to me right now, I can't justify it.
Click to expand...

I understand that the 10% increase in price might hurt, but with what you'll be using your laptop for, right graphics card choice might prove crucial as we get heavily reliant on GPUs these days and will for the forseeable future. Anyway, it's your call and your money. :)
 
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